


Mystery Man

by onlyhereforellick



Series: Fictober ‘19 [17]
Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, fictober 19, post-ep 17x04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-21 11:57:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21074519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlyhereforellick/pseuds/onlyhereforellick
Summary: What did they say, if looks could kill? Terry would be a dead man...well this was an interesting development. Turns out, maybe he did know Ellie’s mystery man.





	Mystery Man

**Author's Note:**

> fictober 19; prompt 17: “There is just something about them/him/her.”
> 
> Literally the second Terry was introduced in the ep I knew I’d be writing this fic

About a week after their punishment, the red jumpsuits, endless evidence boxes, and Terry were just about forgotten. That was until next to a dead sailor they found an old baby bottle with remnants of breastmilk dating back an entire decade matched an archived entry of unknown DNA in Kasie’s system. With McGee following up on another lead, that left Bishop and Torres to don their favorite crimson attire and search in long-term storage for this box of evidence.

On their walk down, Nick decided to game plan, “Ok, so we didn’t leave Terry on the best of terms. But, I did text him the other day about his diet plan.”

With a questioning look on her face, Ellie turned to look at Nick, “...and your point? He’s become your nutritionist so now you’re bros?”

“Well, no. He hasn’t texted me back. But we’re friends!—“

Ellie let out a bark of a laugh, which got her a quick disapproving glare from Nick.

“I don’t see you coming up with any ideas...” he retorted.

“I mean, Terry seems like a nice, single guy. I could always bat my eyelashes, flip my hair, touch his arm, you know, flirt a little. That might win him over.” Ellie suggested nonchalantly with a small shrug to her shoulders.

Thankfully, she was looking ahead so she couldn’t see his mask slip because the picture that was forming in his head blurred his vision so fast he couldn’t see straight. “No!” Nick practically yelled, then clearing his throat corrected himself, “No, no you don’t have to do that. I know you don’t like to objectify yourself. I’ll just try and sweet talk him.”

Ellie raised one brow, but didn’t fight it. “Ok then, it’s all you.”

———

Too bad when they got down there and Nick tried to talk nutrition and work out regimens, Terry’s eyes glazed over almost immediately. He started to brush them off like the field agents they were, and he couldn’t stand. 

“Yeah, yeah. I did keto for a bit, not anymore. I go to the gym like anyone else, man. Just find a trainer. I gotta uh-, I gotta get back to work. There’s no time for dilly dallying.” Terry cut Nick’s rambling off. Clearly Terry was not one for chit chat during the workday. 

Panic started to rise in Ellie. There was no way they’d be able to locate this box among the millions of boxes quick enough for Gibbs without Terry’s help. So she ignored Nick’s previous words, and channeled her inner Charlie. 

She unzipped the top of her jumpsuit to mid chest and bit her bottom lip discretely to give it some extra color before flicking her neck just slightly to have her hair cascade over her shoulder. Reaching out to just barely brush her fingertips along Terry’s bicep, she turned it on. She’s looked up at him under her eyelashes and let out a barely audible—but just loud enough he would hear—gasp as she put more pressure into her grasp on Terry’s arm. “Wow, Terry. I-, I didn’t notice before. I mean,” and here was the time to play slightly dumb, waving her opposite hand around before placing in lightly on her exposed collarbone, “I know Torres mentioned your biceps were big, but these are-  _ wow _ . You really do work out, don’t you?” Finishing off her charade by bringing the hand that wasn’t still circling his arm to her hair and twirling a golden lock as she fluttered her eyelashes and gazed at him in awe. 

For a second, she thought it wouldn’t work. She thought she may have gone a step too far and he would call her bluff. Thank god that second passed quickly and he stammered back at her, “I uh-, I-, erm, yes. Yes I work out.” 

She felt Nick fuming beside her, but he could just thank her later. She was getting them what they needed, that stupid box of old evidence. “Do you think we could borrow your muscles to help us get this silly thing out of storage?” Ellie asked with another bat or two of her eyelashes. She was laying on thick, she knew, but at this point she was desperate. She needed to stay on Gibbs and Vance’s good side, or ironically, she’d end up back in the very place she was currently. 

“Of-, of course, Agent Bishop, what’s the case number?” Terry replied, with a small throat clear as if to collect himself. 

“Oh please, call me Ellie,” she said with a wink before rattling off the number.

“Ah that’s easy! Right this way, m’lady,” Terry led her while holding out a nice bicep for her to wrap a hand around. 

Nick followed glumly behind them and didn’t say another word until they were in the elevator headed back to the bullpen. 

“What the HELL was that about, Bishop??” Nick fired at her. 

Ellie fired right back, “Oh, just ME getting us the evidence, unlike YOU.” If he was going to be unreasonably angry, so could she. She wasn’t sure why his moods kept flipping like Sunday morning pancakes recently, but she fed up with it. “And if you don’t like my methods, then don’t come next time!”

Nick harrumphed and clamped his mouth shut. He very obviously wanted to add something, but didn’t. Instead he just stood there, facing the closed elevator doors with his arms crossed tightly across his chest. 

_ A chest she wanted to scrape her nails down inch by painful inch while he—_

_Where the heck did that come from?!_ Ellie tried to push those wayward fantasies from her mind. The rush of anger must have brought with it her other, um-  _ passionate _ thoughts that normally contained themselves to when she was at home...in bed...alone. Not in a small elevator moving at a snail’s pace with the starring lead in said dreams. 

She shoved those thoughts deep into the recesses of her brain for the remainder of the case. They found the missing child, now almost ten, with her mother after they went off the grid a decade ago to escape from a psychotic father, who turned out to be their dead sailor. 

She wanted to thank Terry for his help—and apologize for leading him on—so she invited him to grab coffee in the courtyard the day after the case closed. All they were doing was catching up on paperwork any way, no one would miss her. 

Sitting on a bench next to Terry the gentle giant, as she had started to call him in her head, she drew in a fortifying breath before confessing her earlier transgression, “Terry, thank you so much for your help, really, the team couldn’t have done it without you. And, I’m sorry if I, uh, made it seem like—“

“Agent Bishop,” he interrupted her, “Ellie, if I may—“ she nodded her head for him to continue, “I knew what you were trying to do.” He chuckled as she stared at him wide-eyed in shock. 

“You- you knew?” She repeated, dumbfounded. 

“Of course I knew! Girl you were SO obvious.” Terry was now bent over grabbing his middle he was laughing so hard. 

“Then, why...?” She trailed off unable to form complete sentences. 

His laughing finally died down and with a wicked spark to his eye he answered her, “Oh, easy. It was way more fun to see Agent Torres so butt hurt that you were able to con me than he was. That I could not pass up! He was downright pissed.” Terry let loose another leftover chuckle. 

Ellie couldn’t help but join in, it had been pretty funny to see Nick get his panties in a twist over her harmless, and apparently bad, flirting. Which reminded her, “Yeah, that I get. What I don’t get, how was it obvious I wasn’t actually into you?” She had to know if there was something wrong with her, she really didn’t want to be single forever. 

Terry turned his body slightly on the bench so he was better angled to see her straight on. He placed a warm hand on her thigh just above the knee and reassured her, “Your heart just wasn’t in it.  _ That _ was obvious. Your heart must belong to someone else. And that someone else is a really special guy because you’re a damn catch, Ellie. I hope he knows how lucky he is.”

She glanced away at his words—knowing that she still hadn’t the guts to tell Nick what she’d been feeling more and more lately. 

“Wait, does he not know he has your heart?” Terry worriedly asked her. His tone pulling her eyes back to him. 

“Uh-, no,” she hung her head, “not yet. And not because I’m unsure. Let me tell you, this guy, he’s- he’s the real deal for me. There is just something about him. I can’t explain it.” She was at a loss for words. 

“Tell him that! Ellie, you gotta let this guy know how much he means to you,” Terry urged her. 

“I know, I know. I just- I’m worried he won’t feel the same, he won’t want the same thing. I don’t know...” she trailed off again turning her head to the side. Quickly snapping back though, she pressed, “but you can’t tell anyone! This is our secret between friends. We’re friends now, right?”

Terry gave out a deep laugh, “Yes, we’re friends Ellie. And you have nothing to worry about, your secret’s safe with me. I don’t even know who we’re talking about, remember?”

Ellie gave Terry’s bicep a gentle, friendly squeeze as she stood to go. Hand moving to his shoulder, she bent down to whisper in his ear, “Thanks for keeping my secret, Terry.” And with that she strolled off to refill her coffee before she was due back in the bullpen. 

Terry would have thought nothing more of the exchange between two new friends if he hadn’t caught a glimpse of Agent Torres a couple hundred yards away. He’d already turned and stormed off toward the parking lot, but Terry’d noticed that murderous glare—what did they say, if looks could kill? Terry would be a dead man...well this was an interesting development. Turns out, maybe he  _did_ know Ellie’s mystery man. 


End file.
